A FAMILY’S pet greyhound had a lucky escape after he managed to get an eight-inch tree branch stuck in his hip.

Former racing dog Dewey, aged six, had to undergo a two-hour operation after he was impaled on a branch while scampering across a field in Kenilworth.

By the time his owner Andrea Eastham reached him all that could be seen was a bleeding puncture wound on his shoulder.

He was rushed to Avonvale Veterinary Centre, in Birches Lane, where vet Stephen Bamber assessed him.

He said: “When Dewey was first seen he appeared only to have a puncture wound.

“There was no sign of a stick being inside him and an X-ray wouldn’t have revealed it.

“However, an infection spread alongside his ribcage, so we were forced to open him up in a two-hour operation. Inside we found a piece of stick buried in the muscle by his hip – almost two feet away from the entry wound.

“We can only assume that he ran on to a long stick and then this piece broke off deep inside him as he fought to free himself.”

Andrea said she and her family, who live in Whitemoor Road, Kenilworth, got Dewey two years ago from the Retired Greyhound Trust, in Rugby.